Woah, hold on there. Resist the inevitable impulse to dash out the door to the nearest parfumerie. Put your car keys away and sit back down in your chair. Even if you want to smell like the Pope — and you know you want to — you can’t. There’ll be no spritzing of papal perfume for you. (I know, I know. Try to compose yourself before reading any further.) That’s because unlike fragrances from other celebrities like Britney, Jean-Paul Gaultier, or Madonna, eau de Pope is for the pontiff’s exclusive use.

Yeah, that’s right. Be jealous. Be very jealous.

The article is reproduced below, in its entirety, without further comment. I’m very interested to see all of your comments, though…

At 84, Pope Benedict XVI has proven to be a spiffy dresser. He wears cherry red loafers that landed him in the pages of Esquire magazine as the “accessorizer of the year,” he’s been spotted wearing sunglasses by Gucci and been outfitted by the Italian fashion house, Belstaff. Now, according to the Guardian, il Papa has commissioned his own brand of eau de cologne, a scent that only he may wear.

The fragrance is a combination of lime tree, verbena and grass and was created by Silvana Casoli, an Italian nose, as perfume makers are called, who has created scents for Sarah Jessica Parker, Katy Perry, Madonna and Sting.

Casoli also made scents for priests who embarked on the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain – the perfumes, named Water of Faith and Water of Hope, were so beloved by the pilgrims that they presented samples to their pope, the Guardian reported.

Casoli made a secret pact with the pope and refused to release further details about the ingredients but she did reveal that as she tried to come up with the perfect concoction, she thought of nature and the pope’s love of the forests.

“I realized that an essence like this had to have at its core something pure and clean, recalling the idea of peace,” Casoli told Il Messagero newspaper. “I thought of the smells the Pope would smell when praying at the Grotto of Lourdes.”

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